Formalizing a plan among federal and state officials to demolish four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday called the dams’ removal a victory for the environment and migratory fish.

“This is a good exercise of humankind correcting some of the mistakes that it’s made in the past,” Brown said in Klamath. “The end goal here is the river, the fish and the sustainability, not for the next election cycle, but for eons and thousands of years.”

In an agreement first announced in February, federal officials, the states of California and Oregon and the power company that owns the dams, Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp, will move forward with dam removal despite resistance from Congress. They will instead seek permission to remove the dams from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The dams, viewed as harmful to migratory fish, are used primarily for hydroelectric power and provide little water storage. Still, their removal was opposed by many Republicans.

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